1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a punch and scoring system, and more particularly, to a punch and scoring system for making envelopes, bags, boxes, containers and the like.
2. The Relevant Technology
There are various methods for designing and making envelopes. One of the concepts in the past has been to provide a mass produced envelope whereby hundreds of envelopes may be produced at a given size for the purpose of selling them in quantities on the open market. This is perhaps the best option for low cost envelopes where a standard size and color envelope is required.
An example of an early small production envelope is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,879,624, by R. L. Lockwood, entitled “Apparatus for Making Envelopes”, dated May 31, 1930. A template enables the user to trace five different sizes of envelopes. Once a template is traced onto a piece of paper, the user can then cutout the pattern traced on the paper with scissors. With the paper cut in the proper configuration, the corners of the paper can then be folded by utilizing a flat rectangular folding plate which will determine the final size of the envelope. To accomplish this, the rectangular folding plate is placed over the paper pattern at the center of the pattern. Care should be taken to make sure that the rectangular folding plate is placed exactly at the center of the paper cutout. There are no marks or indicators of where this rectangular folding plate should be placed, but it should be fairly evident that you are not to place it over any of the cut edges of the paper cutout edges. These cutouts extend to the very edge of this rectangular folding plate as it is placed on the paper. The four corners of the paper cutout may then be folded over that rectangular folding plate, creating the edge or pattern of each of the folds. This requires four folds to be made in the pattern. Once the four folds have been set in the paper cutout, the rectangular folding plate will then be removed and the paper cutout will then be folded together at each one of its corners. The final step is to glue the four tabs of the envelope together, forming an envelope.
With this device, only a limited number of envelope sizes are allowed to be made. Not only that, the pattern design is cutout after marking the paper with a pencil or pen. The design incorporates several intricate angled sides and therefore does require some dexterity to not only trace around the pattern, but to cutout the pattern with scissors.
Another approach to this issue is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,491, by Romer et al., entitled “Envelope Maker and a Method of Using,” dated May 21, 1996. This device reduces the intricacy of the work required to make an envelope, but it only allows one size of envelope to be made from the pattern.
A template is provided that the user will utilize to trace around the exterior edges of the template with a pen or pencil. In this case, the paper or other medium to be made into an envelope results in a square piece of paper with one of the corners clipped off. Therefore, it is a simplified template and paper cutout as compared to the previous pattern discussed. Once the paper cutout is traced from the template, scissors are utilized to cutout along the lines created by this traced line on the paper. The cutout involves just four simple cuts with the scissors and can be accomplished by someone with limited dexterity. Once the paper is cutout to match the template pattern, the paper is then laid on the template in the same orientation as the template pattern itself.
The template has a rectangular cutout in its center section that is on a 45 degree angle to the outside edges of the template. This cutout is slightly larger than a separate flat folding plate that is utilized as a mechanism to provide fold lines in the paper cutout. To determine where the fold line will be on the paper cutout, the user places the paper cutout over the template in the same exact orientation as the template configuration itself. The user, by feeling through the paper cutout, can recognize the outline of the rectangular cutout. Knowing where the cutout is, the user may then insert the flat folding plate over that cutout and press down, sandwiching the paper between the flat folding plate and the template and pressing the paper cutout into the hole of the template. This creates the fold line demarcations for the user to be able to discern where the paper cutout should be folded when this paper cutout is removed from between the template and the flat folding plate. Once the paper cutout has been folded, the final step is to glue the tabs of the paper cutout to each other to create the envelope.
This simplified format for making an envelope has some improvement over the first method mentioned above, but the inability to make several sizes of envelopes is a major deficiency. It may be a simple approach to making an envelope, but another disadvantage to this design is that when the corners of the paper cutout are folded together to form an envelope, the paper cutout at the edges end up with their corners being four layers thick, instead of two layers thick. This is because there are no cutouts in the inside corners to allow for a fold to occur without a double overlap of the corners. This double overlap could create a problem for gluing the corners together due to the bunching up of material in each corner.
To rectify one of the deficiencies mentioned in the above patent, the author developed an improvement in U.S. Pat. No. 5,685,816, entitled “Envelope Maker and Method of Use”, by Nicholas K. Romer, dated Nov. 11, 1997. The '816 Patent allowed for a couple of different sizes of envelopes to be made from the same template as opposed to the single size envelope offered in the first invention. This design, however, still has the problem that the folded corners of the paper cutout, where the two adjacent corners meet, have a double fold of paper because the corners are not cutout allowing the paper to fold over as a single sheet. Thus there are four thicknesses of paper in each corner, instead of two if there was a corner cutout.
Another example of a template design that allowed the making of single envelopes is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,635,003 B2 by Merchant, entitled “Method for Laying Out Envelope Blank,” dated Oct. 21, 2003. One of the deficiencies of the previous designs for making a one-off envelope is that there is only a limited number of sizes of envelopes possible. The '003 Patent is an attempt to provide a mechanism to allow multiple sizes of envelopes to be made. An adjustable template is provided that allows the user to be able to lay this template over the top of a card the user wishes to insert into an envelope. This template is adjustable so that it may be opened to the point that it mimics the outer limits of the size of the card that will be inserted into the envelope. With the adjustable template set to the size of the card, the template may then be transformed to another template that is in graphical form. This graphical template in combination with the adjustable template is what is required to be able to size the cut lines for the envelope that will fit the card that goes in the inside of the envelope. With both the templates superimposed on top of a sheet of paper, a series of points may be drawn on the paper. Connecting the point drawn on the paper and drawing a line from one point to the other will indicate the cut line required to form the envelope. Utilizing the adjustable template the user may then mark a “V” cutout for each of the corners of the envelope. This “V” cut allowed the edges of each of the flaps, when folded together, to overlap. This eliminated the need for the four layer fold at each of the corners of each of the four flaps that was the case in the prior two examples.
The drawback to this design is the complexity of the templates and how to use them. There is a greater chance for error in how to place the two templates together, how to utilize the graphical template to form the points of the pattern to be cut, where the cutout for the corners are to be placed and also how difficult it is to follow the intricate pattern when cutting out the pattern. There are many angular cuts required as well as four small triangular cutouts at each of what will become the four inside corners of the envelope. This design requires a lot of skill to use.
To summarize concerning the prior art, it may be stated that prior apparatuses for making envelopes lacked at least one of these features: simplicity (in ease of use and ease of repeated consistency), and the ability to be able to make multiple sizes of envelopes at the discretion of the user. The advantage of the envelope punch and scoring system is that it overcomes all these disadvantages.